Essentials for the Perfect Home Gym
If you love to work out, building a home gym can save you the hassle of expensive memberships, crowded gyms and time spent commuting. Not to mention you can listen to any music you enjoy, spend time with friends, and wear any clothes that make you feel comfortable while working out. Though the task of creating a home gym sounds daunting, it is a lot easier than you’d think!
Home Gym Essentials
Let’s say you’ve chosen to dedicate part of your basement or garage to your home gym. Depending on your fitness goals, budget, available space and preferred workouts, there’s some essential equipment you’ll want to start with. These can include:
Squat Rack With a Pull-Up Bar
A squat rack is great for lower body workouts like squats and lunges, but also easily accommodates upper body workouts like overhead presses and bench presses. They often have built-in safety features to protect you from injury during your solo workouts
Olympic Barbell
An Olympic barbell will likely be the most versatile piece in your home gym. When paired with different sized weight plates, it makes it easy to adjust the intensity of your lifts, as well as train all different parts of your body. Fitness gurus recommend that you shell out for a high-quality barbell, as they need to hold up to frequent use and weight changes.
Weight Plates
Weight plates are necessary for use with the Olympic barbell, as well as for steadily increasing lifts. Weight plates come into play with exercises that use the barbell, like squats or overhead presses.
Adjustable Bench
A bench is a great tool for upper body workouts such as bench presses, dumbbell curls and other similar movements. Using an adjustable bench allows you to perform a variety of movements with a single piece of equipment. Some models even fold up, creating more open space when not in use.
Cardio Equipment
If cardio is part of your workout routine, you may want to consider purchasing some type of dedicated cardio equipment. Exercise bikes and ellipticals are both affordable choices, though you can even opt for something as simple as a jump rope. If space is a commodity, using YouTube to find cardio workouts that you can do without equipment is also an excellent option.
WeatherTech Home Gym Essentials
WeatherTech products are a great way to round out your home gym and create an even better workout experience. Installing TechFloor under your equipment provides excellent traction for those extra sweaty workouts and prevents cosmetic damage that heavy weights can cause to the floor beneath. All-Purpose Mats are a great way to keep weight plates and barbell clips organized and easily accessible, and the addition of a MirrorFone or TabletHolder makes following along with workout videos or digital trainers a breeze!